Tuesday, October 02, 2012

India's landless to march for reform

A massive 200 mile march will protest the conditions of peasant farmers and people without land in India. It is going to be one of the biggest protests in the nation's history. 50,000 people are expected to march into Delhi tomorrow to demand more help from the government.

"Millions of people are living in slums, on railway tracks, under
plastic sheets … They should have a piece of land to call their own.
Others have to make way for factories, roads, airports, mines. I do not
accept industrialisation at this cost," said PV Rajagopal, the veteran
activist who leads the Ekhta Parishad organisation behind the march.

Rajagopal
and his followers say they are inspired by the example set by Mahatma
Gandhi and his ideal of a nation of self-sufficient villages. One aim of
the march is to mobilise the hundreds of millions who have not
benefited from India's 20-year economic boom. Today is the anniversary
of Gandhi's birthday and a national holiday.

However, Gandhi's
"vision is being rejected every day in this country", according to
Rajagopal, who made his name by persuading bandits in central India to
"lay down their arms" in the 1970s.

The march is an embarrassment for the beleaguered Indian government, a fragile coalition led by the Congress party.

Rural
voters have traditionally voted for Congress and their support will be
crucial in elections due in 2014. In recent years, the poor have
increasingly turned to other, often local, parties.